Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Crazy Weeks & New Additions

Wow, these last couple weeks have been a blur! Between setting up for & working a big local festival, the regular work weeks, hiring & training 2 new employees, things going on every night after work, and Adam getting sick with a fever & diarrea (sp?) things have been crazy! And to think Joe was originally going to be out of state during all of this- oh my! That would have been a nightmare!

In the midst of all of that, last week one of the guys in our department found some baby kittens that someone had tied up in a trashbag and threw away at one of the parks!!! He heard them crying and found them and saved them. They had all 5 kittens in a box at one of our facilities for 1/2 a day, and my co-worker and I just happened to go by there to unload some things from the festival. At the time I was thinking there's no way Joe would go for it since they would have to be inside and he has said before that we are never having indoor pets again. But, I mentioned them to him anyway, and to my surprise he said if noone else at work will take them we could take one. (he really is an animal lover and has a soft spot for situations like this). I emailed the lady who had them by her desk and told her if she couldn't find homes we'd take one. Well, unfortunately she didn't get my email until after she had dropped the 3 remaining kitties at the Humane Society. Then we found out that the Humane Society was only going to keep them for 5 days and then they would be killed, never even having the chance for someone to adopt them. So my co-worker and I were on a mission to save these kitties. But now that they were at the Humane Society they had to go through all the procedures and rules and official adoption, etc. They said that even if we want them, that they can't be adopted until they are fixed, and they can't be fixed until they are 2 lbs, and they can't hold them at the shelter that long waiting for them to get that big. So, unless they could find someone to foster them until they were big enough that they would be killed anyway, and they felt that the chances of someone fostering them were slim. How frustrating that a couple of us were willing to take them in and give them a home, but because of all the "rules" they were going to be killed anyway! So, my co-worker continued to email with one of the employees about it (she knew her from a program we had done with them in the past) and eventually the director of the Humane Society agreed that she would foster the kitties at her house until they were big enough to be fixed/adopted, if we turned in an application and put a deposit down. If they didn't receive that by Saturday then the kitties were going to be put down. I talked Joe into us taking 2 of them, since kittens do better growing up in 2's together anyway, and since that way the boys won't "fight over" just one, and so that we weren't leaving one to die. My co-worker was able to talk another of our co-workers who had already taken 1 of the kitties before they ended up at the shelter, into taking another. So, we think all 5 kitties have been saved now. Whew! I stopped by Friday morning and put our deposit down and turned in our application. Adam went with me and he loved the kitties! They are still very tiny (about 1 pound at most), and we will have to wait a few more weeks before they can come home. But at least their lives have been saved...again.

I can't believe anyone could tie up live kittens in a trashbag and just throw them away. How sad and awful. Thank goodness the guy found them fairly quickly before they died. Anyway, I took a couple pictures while we were there visiting the kitties Friday. See below. We are taking the one that has white and buff colors, and one of the solid buff colored ones.

Sorry I haven't been around lately, things are just crazy. I'm really hoping that everything will slow back down. I will try to catch up soon.



Monday, September 10, 2007

Menu Plan Monday


Here's our dinner menu plan for this week:
Monday= Pizza casserole
Tuesday= BBQ chicken legs
Wednesday= Pasta Crab casserole
Thursday= leftovers
Friday= Pizza/family night
Saturday & Sunday= on your own, as I will be working at a local festival all weekend long!
It's finally starting to cool down a little here this week, I'm so excited. I love fall!

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Our holiday weekend & Cub Scouts

Okay, catch up time. The holiday weekend was pretty good. Brendan's school was out on Friday, so we took off work too and headed to a waterpark that we've had tickets for all summer but every time we think we're going to go, something happens. So, we headed down there only to get there and find out they were closed! *sigh* I had checked a couple months ago back when we decided to do this, and their website said they'd be open. Another car pulled up while we were in the empty parking lot, and they said they had just called the day before and were told it would be open. Crazy! (I looked at their website again when we got home and sure enough it now showed it as closed that day). So, since we were already there we decided to take the boys to do some other fun things and try to make the most of it.

So, we headed to a small children's museum nearby instead...




Then we went to a nearby state park to swim...




After that we went to get frozen custard (well, Joe and the boys did, I just watched & took pictures since I'm lactose intolerant)...


Then we went back home. Sunday we drove about 2 hours to meet Joe's family for lunch for his mom's birthday. It was nice to see everyone again.

Then laying in bed Sunday night I got to thinking that we really should try to go back to the waterpark Monday (the last operating day of the season), because Brendan had earned that free ticket at school for reading books, and it didn't seem fair that he never got to use it all summer. Joe wasn't too thrilled with the idea of driving back down again, he had some things he wanted to get done. So, I offered to just take Brendan myself, and he could let Adam play outside while he got things done outside. But, he finally decided that we should just all go as a family again. So, Monday we got in the car AGAIN and drove back down there. Luckily they really were open this time. The boys had a blast! Aside from Adam almost unzipping my swimsuit down the front in front of a lot of people (!), and the lifeguard diving in to save Brendan at one point, and the tantrum Brendan threw when it was time to leave...it was a great time! Unfortunately I don't have any photos to share yet, since I used a disposable waterproof camera instead of my digital camera.

The other news is that Brendan has joined Cub Scouts. He is a Tiger Cub Scout, and his first official pack meeting is tomorrow night. We saw a list of some of the activities they will be doing this year, and it sounds like a lot of fun! He is very excited.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

I'm Still Here

Wow, all the days of school letting out early for heat and then the holiday weekend really threw things off. I'm still here...still kickin'...just trying to get back into the routine. We had a fun holiday weekend for the most part. Will post more w/ pics soon! Hopefully tomorrow. Hope you all are doing well!